All in a day's work: May Day musings

It may seem strange to us that May Day is celebrated as a traditional spring holiday in other parts of the world. It wasn't until late 19th century that May 1 was chosen as the International Workers Day (or Labour Day). This holiday holds a certain appeal in countries where lifelong labour is synonymous with life. The futurists however, are predicting days when Artificial Intelligence will do all the work for us, while we grapple with a lifetime of leisure; Kerala has just contributed to the process by banning the practice of ‘gawking’ charges. Read on…

Curated By: Madhu Kapparath

Published: May 3, 2018

The May Day 'King' and Queen' lead the Greenmen of Glastonbury carrying this year's

Image by : Matt Cardy/Getty Images

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The May Day 'King' and Queen' lead the Greenmen of Glastonbury carrying this year's Maypole to a ceremony near Glastonbury Tor as part of May Day celebrations. Although more synonymous with International Workers' Day, or Labour Day, May Day or Beltane is celebrated by druids and pagans as the beginning of summer and the chance to celebrate the coming of the season of warmth and light. Other traditional English May Day rites and celebrations include Morris dancing and the crowning of a May Queen, with celebrations involving a Maypole.

It doesn't pay to work in Venezuela. After working as a cardiologist for five years, Yolanda Abr

Image by : Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters

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It doesn't pay to work in Venezuela. After working as a cardiologist for five years, Yolanda Abreu got a severance pay of 156,584.29 bolivars, which is about 0.20 dollars on the black market - barely enough to buy a cup of coffee.

Like her, millions of Venezuelans have seen their salaries decimated due to rampant hyperinflation, which is expected to drive prices up by 13,000 percent this year, International Monetary Fund figures show. The crisis has led to low wages, shortage of basic food, medicine and cash. The decline has been partially attributed by to Hugo Chávez's attempt to turn Venezuela into a socialist paradise; policies that his successor Nicolás Maduro has continued.

Peace, sometimes, is the sound of silence literally. Here, an anonymous worker dismantles loudspeake

Image by : Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters

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Peace, sometimes, is the sound of silence literally. Here, an anonymous worker dismantles loudspeakers that were set up by South Korea for blaring propaganda broadcasts across the border separating the two Koreas in Paju, South Korea. Day and night, the loudspeakers blared bouncy music and criticism of the poverty and human rights abuses in the North. At the recent summit, Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong-un, the leaders of South and North Korea, pledged that "there will be no more war on the Korean Peninsula and thus a new era of peace has begun".

These aren't protesting fists at a socialist manifesto, but Real Madrid thumping the air after a

Image by : Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters

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These aren't protesting fists at a socialist manifesto, but Real Madrid thumping the air after a shaky victory over Bayern Munich on May 1, managing to make their way into the Champions League Final. Real manager Zinedine Zidane was quoted saying, “It was tough on the heart but you can’t achieve anything without suffering.” He sounded like it was all work and no play.

Far-left anarchist groups, known as "Black Blocks" ran amok in Paris on Tuesday after join

Image by : Guillaume Pinon/NurPhoto via Getty Images

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Far-left anarchist groups, known as "Black Blocks" ran amok in Paris on Tuesday after joining the traditional May Day rally in Paris. Shouting "Rise up, Paris" and "Everyone hates the police", the hooded and black jacketed youths threw petrol bombs, setting fire to a McDonald's restaurant near Austerlitz station, forcing the riot police to use water cannon and tear gas in an effort to disperse them.

Google’s parent company Alphabet is the best employer in the world, according to data compiled

Image by : Brooks Kraft LLC/Corbis via Getty Images

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Google’s parent company Alphabet is the best employer in the world, according to data compiled by Statista and Forbes, on best publicly-listed companies to work for. Alphabet topped the list with a perfect score of 100, with employees citing the company’s image, working conditions and diversity as the reasons for its top rating. And no, having an office where you can nap isn’t the reason that more than two million people every year apply to work at Google.

The troubling saga of H1-B workers’ spouses on H4 visas in the US has worsened after President

Image by : Yichuan Cao/NurPhoto via Getty Images

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The troubling saga of H1-B workers’ spouses on H4 visas in the US has worsened after President Donald Trump's ascent to the White House in 2016. H4 visa holders were not allowed to work for pay in the US until the Obama government changed the rule in 2015. Within weeks, anti-immigration groups filed a case challenging the concession and that case is still going on. At its heart, most of the women who are highly qualified, are simply expressing a desire to work in a land espousing liberty and equal opportunity.

It’s a pop-up, but it takes 25 staffers on any given shift drawing from a San Francisco employ

Image by : Kelly Sullivan/Getty Images for Museum of Ice Cream

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It’s a pop-up, but it takes 25 staffers on any given shift drawing from a San Francisco employee pool of 120 to run the Museum of Ice Cream. To get a job at the Museum, show up at the weekly casting call. And prepare for the first question: “What’s your ice-cream name?” That will be your identity. The job: mop scuff marks off the pink, alphabet-patterned linoleum, replace the cracked whipped-cream cans on the wall, offer ice-cream cones and cotton candy and mint mochis at precise moments and exert subtle crowd control, all the while keeping an easy jibe. The recruits’ average about 20 years old, so forget applying, you millennial!